Ive been on my local housing list for nearly 3 years(northlincs),I need to be in the village I live in for my support network of friends and family of which they don't care a jot about,local floodings exacerbated the situation and know I need somewhere sooner rather than later,all they've done is offer rooms in flats above pubs from 4-13miles away!none seem to understand what been pulled out of this network will do to me,i even mentioned the cost distance of friends helping out for nowt and the council paying careworkers,the answers was`not our department`.There is absolutely no help or common sense in regards to lupus from them.I go past empty flats in the village everyday n they will be the same for months guaranteed,any help would be appreciated,Andrew

6 Replies

Hi Andrew, Go to your G.P. and tell them you need a private letter about your mental health/lupus which you need to pay £20.00 for (they dont do this on the NHS) this will put you at the top of the waiting list. My mental health doctor rang me on thursday to ask me if I needed the same letter to be re-housed in the town where my family live. Hope this helps. Good luck.

You need to get your local CAB (Citizens Advice Bureaux) involved. The CAB have legal people available for you to have a free consultation and they have been exceedingly helpful when I have had a problem.

ANDREW...tell the housing association/council about empty flats..say you would like to have 1. Write and email. Become a pest. Your Dr should support you as well. Get a letter and scan copy and email the housing every day if you that desperate. Repeat and repertition. Scream and shout via letters and emails. Calls too if you like. Dont let it go. Stand your ground. They will help you just to get you to go away.

Hi Andrew, sorry for late response, not been on here much recently. I live in NE Lincs and my hubby and I were finally given a disabled friendly bungalow last year after 5 years of trying and fighting. The problem was my age (am 40) and these properties are not usually made available for people under 60. We had to FIGHT, really really really fight. Advice I would give would be to

a) enlist the help of a housing support worker if there is one available from HA to help fight your corner.

b) get the support of either CAB or an independent community advice worker.

c) Contact adult social care and ask for an ot assessment, also if you have any care needs they may be able to help.

d) Get supporting letter from EVERYONE you possibly can, preferably ones that include the effect that moving you away from all of your support mechanisms will have a negative impact on your mental health, and hit them over the head with them (not literally of course lol).

And finally, keep copies of EVERYTHING as they have a nasty habit of loosing important bits of paper... happened to us 3 times. Write down when you take paperwork in, who you spoke to, and what you gave them, preferably get a receipt.